Dow Today: Caterpillar (CAT) Lower

Holding back the Dow today is Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), which is lagging the broader Dow index with a $1.55 decline (-1.9%) bringing the stock to $81.06.

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI) is trading down 136.0 points (-0.9%) at 14,620 as of Wednesday, Apr 17, 2013, 1:35 p.m. ET. During this time, 561.9 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 591.2 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 530 issues advancing vs. 2,452 declining with 101 unchanged.

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Holding back the Dow today is Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), which is lagging the broader Dow index with a $1.55 decline (-1.9%) bringing the stock to $81.06. This single loss is lowering the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 11.73 points or roughly accounting for 8.6% of the Dow's overall loss. Volume for Caterpillar currently sits at 6.2 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 6.4 million shares.

Caterpillar has a market cap of $53.89 billion and is part of the industrial goods sector and industrial industry. Shares are down 7.8% year to date as of Tuesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.5%.

TheStreet Ratings rates Caterpillar as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its good cash flow from operations and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.